patrick vieira manager
Steve Bruce and the abuse he’s received has clearly gone too far – have you received criticism in the past as a manager and how have you dealt with it?
Yes, I receive criticism when I was a manager or even a player and I want to say that’s part of the world where we are, the world that we are living in. I think that doesn’t mean it’s right, but I think those criticisms [of Bruce] are over the line.
Do you just shut it out then or just don’t listen to it?
You try to but obviously with the media today it is really difficult. But we have to be strong to deal with it. But I think it’s important for people to understand that this is not, at times, really easy and this is why the support around from the families and from the club is really important.
Graeme Jones is in temporary charge tomorrow and you’ve played so well this season so far do you feel this is a must-win because you deserve a victory?
I don’t think is a must-win. I think the performance that we are going to put on the field will tell us if we have a chance of winning the game or not. I think we have played, at times, some good football but it’s important for us to is to turn those good performances into a win. And to do that we have to play even better. So that means making less mistakes taking more of our chances and that will allow us to win games.
Seeing you disappointed at Arsenal and on your knees, does it show a positive way that so early on, with so many changes in the summer, that you’re disappointed you’ve left the Emirates with just the point Can you see the positives in that?
I’ve seen the positive with the way we played and how difficult we made it for Arsenal. On the other side, I was very disappointed because I felt the players performed well and they deserved to leave that stadium with a win and I was really sorry for them because they played well.
How far off is Ebere Eze to getting back into the squad?
I think you are and we are all excited to see him coming back from long injury and he’s doing really well. He started training with the team, but he’s still a couple of weeks away from getting involved because we have to be really, really realistic with the injury that he had and the time that he needs to be fitter to get involved.
What about Wilfried Zaha?
Wilf is good. He started training with the team a couple of days ago and he will be part of the squad tomorrow.
You’ll have a great squad to work with when everyone is fit. You must be so pleased with how it’s going in terms of the performances?
Yeah, but in the end, you know what is important for us is to win football matches. And as a football club and as a manager and as a player that we have, we want to win. So we know that we have good potential but potential doesn’t make you win games. We need to work harder and we need to work well as a team. And I think if as a manager I manage to get those players to play well together and to play at the level that I know they can perform., then we will have a good chance. But there’s still a lot for the team to improve but we are in a good way.
Any more injuries?
No, we are looking good. Everybody outside of Nathan trained this morning.
Has it been difficult for the players this week after the Arsenal draw?
Yes, it is. Because you know, at the end of the day, we want to win games and we don’t really win a lot so far. We are motivated, we want to play even better because we want to win football matches.
And do you think there’s anything else you can really say as a manager that can almost help your team to not switch off in those final 30 seconds because it’s happened twice now in two games? So you don’t want it to become a trend?
It’s not a trend at all and that’s not worrying me at all. I think what I’m doing and what I want to do is to challenge my players individually and collectively to play even better than what we did in the last couple of games. And that way we will be much stronger as a team and that will allow us to be more successful and to have more chance of winning football matches.
Is it a good or bad time to be playing against Newcastle given the situation they found themselves in this week with Graeme Jones taking charge?
We will have to wait until after the game to answer that question. I don’t think there’s an easy time to play any team. I think they will have their problem but at the same time, when you are in this situation as a player, you will want to perform because you will want to show that you will want to be part of the new project We will be ready, we will be ready to perform and we’ll be ready to work hard and to give ourselves the best shot to take the three points.
More on Bruce – why do you keep doing the ejob and why do managers keep putting themselves in a position where they can receive abuse?
I think there’s the love of the game, the passion of the game. At the same time the pressure that goes with the game. We are involved in the number one sport in the world. I think everybody is a manager and we can receive criticism of the way that the team is playing because we are a manager we will take and we will take the responsibility. But I think sometimes that’s going over the line I think the abuse that he [Bruce] received was unacceptable. And when we are talking about this kind of abuse, we’re talking about any kind of abuse and that can mean any kind of discrimination, any kind of abuse that the manager receiving I think that is unacceptable. I think we know where we are and we know the importance of managers and the responsibility that we are taking, but I think people are going over the line and even if we are staying stronger and proud in our faith, we are still a human being and we still have family and that can have an impact on our family as well.
Have you ever thought of not doing the job for the sake of your family and your mental health?
No, because so far I’m not that at the level of Steve you know because I think he does have a lot of credit because I think as a manager when you go and manage more than 1000 games at that level I think that just shows the consistency of the work that you’ve been doing. So far where I am in my career I’m still enjoying it and we’ll see what will happen in the next couple of years
You deserved to get six points out of those two games [Brighton and Liverpool] but you only got two, how do you view that?
I think the way to analyse and the way I like to do it is just to look at the performances over the 90 minutes and to look at how the team has been progressing game after game and that is telling me that we are doing a good job. We are working well and that will be a question of time I think. When I look at the players how they perform individually and collectively that gives us hope that we will turn it around. I think when you look at the way we conceded those goals there is a little bit of misfortune. It’s a motivation for us to even play better to win football matches
One of the most exciting Palace squads the club has had in a long time?
Yeah, I think this is the football club, the period where the football club is. There’s a big turnover with players coming in and players leaving and we knew that it will be challenging to make the players gel and play together and I think when you’re looking at where we are we can be pleased. But I still believe there is still more to come from some of the players that we have.
Newcastle are now the richest club in the world. Your Arsenal team wasn’t built on spending lots of money. If teams are going to win the Premier League now does it need to be spending lots of money rather than the way Arsene Wenger did it?
I don’t know but it’s difficult to make any judgment of Newcastle. I think they didn’t bring any players so far, so it will be wrong for me to make any comment until they bring in any players.
Mikel Arteta and David Moyes this week said they’ve never known anything like the abuse Steve Bruce received. As a player and a manager, when has it been worse and do you have an example?
I don’t want to really into it and talk about it, and I think this is something that at time we said, this is the world where we are living. But like I said earlier on we shouldn’t accept that and sometimes I think the best way is to ignore those people. And I think we are maybe giving too much time to those people who make in those kinds of abuse, especially on social media. I think one of the best ways to deal with it is to ignore those kinds of abuse. When I say to ignore those kinds of abuses coming from, as well, the media, the less we talk about it and maybe more people will stop those kinds of abuse. I believe we all have a responsibility to try to live in a better world.
That is a difficult thing to achieve, though, isn’t it?
It is really difficult, but not impossible.
Mikel Arteta said big players were put off going into management because of abuse. Can you think of any friends of yours that have been put of by going into management?
Not that I’m aware of and I hope that they will not make a decision based on that because that will be giving them [abusers] too much credit and too much importance. I hope that any ex-players or anybody who wants to go into that world, I will invite them to go because it is a fantastic job. I hope that they will not be making those decisions based on what abuse that they can receive.
